My review: Asus U46SV

is the LCD quality? colours etc ? dull?

 

the LCD is a bit dull. It can be really bright when turning on the brightness at the maximum but do not really expect a big quality cause it's a TN panel... The viewing angles are OK from the left and right but it's not when viewing from the top or the bottom...

In fact, you have to really find the correct angle with the screen to get a "normal" image.

I have to make the calibration of the screen with my gretag mc beth i1 display to tell you if it gives accurate colours...

More to come

 

Thanks for the extra information.

How hot is it on the underside? I like to relax on the couch with my laptop :0

 

You bought yours in UK? Oh better spec than mine than. Nice . Price?

BTW, what I did to remove the malware is to format all drives/software which came with the laptop, reinstall W7 Pro with the link provided in another asus forum-then install drivers. Removes all other junk which did not came on the DVD. Win-win situation.

 

can i know if the u46sv has built-in microphone? the specs doesnt seems to mention this..

 

It has

 

Having a non-backlit keyboard is a terrible design choice.

 

I tried furmarck with this laptop, and be careful with this software, it really stress the graphic card. I recommend not to use it cause of eventual issues with temperature.

I paid it 759 € on this french site cause i'm french and needed of course an azerty keyboard. It's written 799€ but as i have a discount card, I had 5% discount.

Maybe I will install a new system as you made, mystvearn, cause there are some explorer bugs and a clean install will probably resolve that.

It's a real pleasure to have installed the ssd in that laptop !!! 15 sec to boot wow

There is something that you could tell me, mystvearn... Does your machine (in iddle mode) is a bit warm on the underside at the RAM location ? or is it completely cool ?
Also, if you can just tell me the temperatures given by HWMonitor that you have on your machine, it would be really nice.

 

so anyone with gaming/benchmark temps?
and any word on the laptop's cooling+throttling situation?

 

Mine was less than £700.

My laptop is cool though I do not check it while idle. I already did include a HWmonitor readings. Page 4 of this thread I think.

 

Ho man... noob I am
I have forgotten that

It's weird cause mine is warm... I hope I did not damage anything when I installed my ram sticks...

 

Hello, i live in France too and i also interesting to buy this laptop at FNAC. But, this model seems to have no bluetooth. Can you confirm ?

 

I gave up waiting for the U46SV and ordered a Lenovo y470 instead. It came w/ an i7-2630, 8GB of RAM and a blue ray player for ~$950 shipped w/ three year warranty. The same would U46SV config would cost me ~$300 more so even though I like the U46SV design much more I cannot justify the cost. Best of luck for those who are still holding out for the U46SV in the U.S.

 

my model has bluetooth-but its different spec from the one in France

 

I actually found a sweet AmEx promotion w/ Lenovo. Cancelled the first order and re-ordered the same Y470 w/ i7-2630, 8GB of RAM bluray player three year warranty and an extra battery. Shipped for a net of $820 pre-tax. Leaves more money to splurge on an 256GB SSD.

 

Could one of you lucky folks with this computer run a demanding 3d game/app and comment on how hot the underside gets. Thanks!

 

Does anyone know if this thing will have intel WIDI? The u46e according to PCmag has it..

Asus U46E-BAL5 Review & Rating | PCMag.com

 

Bought it yesterday.

It does seem to run pretty hot, but does not throttle. I will play some Fallout 3 tonight and will let you know what temperatures I reached after a few hours.

Ran FurMark for 10mins yesterday and GPU reached 80 degrees (CPU 92).

I'm really disappointed with the screen quality though. There's something just not right about it... The LED matrix is visible with naked eye which makes everything look pretty grim. Viewing angles are amazingly crap and colour reproduction is non-existant.

If you're not planning on hooking it up to a bigger screen, don't buy this laptop.

Keyboard is pretty amazing though, as good as it gets I would say.

 

I checked out the previous model recently at best buy. It was decent but I wasn't thrilled by the design of the unit. I also began looking at the Toshiba Portege and then the Samsung GX411. I was almost sold on the GX411 until I read and saw some videos of the new Samsung Series 7. It looks like an impressive piece of hardware. For anyone still on the fence you should check it out.

 

Hello bond007lr I'm french too and i'm about to buy this laptop, but i'd just like to know if you could put a SSD easily and if a Crucial M4 128 Go will be ok for this laptop ?
Looking forward to reading from you, thank you !

 

Please excuse my English, I write with Google Translator.

I would like to swap the HDD for an SSD. I removed the two screws on the back, but not get the cover open.

Are additional screws to remove to solve the hard drive cover?

What am I doing wrong?

Thank you!

 

First you must unscrew two screws at the botton of the cover. Then carefully, force it open. Once inside you must unscrew 3 more screws from the plate that secures the hd.

I too have received mine this past friday, and been busy doing a clean Windows install and configuring everything. Later i will post my impresions, like Bond007lr and Mystvearn.
Meanwhile a few gaming benchmarks:

Stock GF 540m (672/900) Max temp 85ºC

• 3dMark 06: 8884
• Resident Evil 5 Bench: 44,1fps
• DIRT 2 ULTRA/1366/CROATIA_2 MAP/0XAA/8 CARS/DX11 MIN 27.5 AVG 33.8
• F1 2010 HIGH/1366/MONACO/0XAA/24 CARS/DX11 MIN 36.6 AVG 44.5
• STALKER CALL OF PRYPIAT HIGH/FULL DX11/1366

OCed GF 540m (750/925) Max temp 88ºC

• 3dMark 06: 9497
• Resident Evil 5 Bench: 48,4fps
• DIRT 2 ULTRA/1366/CROATIA_2 MAP/0XAA/8 CARS/DX11 MIN 31.2 AVG 37.3
• F1 2010 HIGH/1366/MONACO/0XAA/24 CARS/DX11 MIN 39.1 AVG 48.8
• STALKER CALL OF PRYPIAT HIGH/FULL DX11/1366

 

Got these for the laptop: Corsair CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9 8GB

 

How did you get the U46SV when it's not yet available in the U.S? Are you Brit?

 

Hello! I got my first laptop ever today and I ended up with this computer, the Asus U46SV. Havent been able to test it much so far, but one thing that confuse me right now are the hotkeys. For some reason it seems that only Fn+F5 and Fn+F6 works for adjusting the brightness of the screen, none of the other seems to work. I cant for example lock the trackpad with Fn+F9, or adjust the volume with FnF10/11/12. Do I have to do something more to make them work or is there something wrong here?

The button on the top left doesnt do anything either it seems. If my understanding is correct that button is suppose to switch between different modes like high performance, entertainment, office and batterysaving.

The only thing I've uninstalled so far are the games that was pre-installed, nothing else.

 

Just returned the pc I simply couldn't tolerate the incredibly bad screen...

That's not the end of the story though... I walked into another computer shop after returning this item and saw the very same laptop... but the screen looked different. On the item that I returned you could pretty much see the led matrix, but not on the one in store. Interestingly, the one in store did not seem to have the Asus bloatware and brightness control was different - it had about 10-11 levels whereas I had about 6.

All of this makes me think that models on sale have different display panels, or, some of the Asus bloatware has a fundamental effect on what you see on the screen. Can anyone confirm if Asus bloatware does some really awful stuff to the screen (by making everything look extremely sharp, messing with contrast and brightness?)?

Cheers

 

I live in Spain and bought it in Germany

My screen does have 11 levels of brightness, but I can just see the led matrix. It's not horrible, but the screen is definitely the worst part of the notebook.

 

Hi all.
I just recieved my laptop, and i´m really happy with it. I also bought an extra 4gigs of RAM and a Kingston 120 Gb SSD to go with it. It´s a little early to get a really good impression, but it´s very snappy.
But i have a question. Whats with the speakers? It seems like both of the speakers are at the right side of the screen. I tried to adjust the left and right balance, but the only thing tha changed was the volume on the right side.
Any ideas?

 

I was in a shop today looking for a U36SD when I was persuaded to sit down and try the U46 side by side with the U36.

I did notice that there is definitely something unpleasant about the U46 screen in comparison to all the other laptops I looked at today. The LCD matrix shows up clearly at high contrast boundaries, making me think I was staring at an 800x600 res screen. Text looks horrible.

I'll go back to the shop and do another comparison, if confirmed I think get a U36SD.

I am in Shanghai btw.

 

I own a U46e-bal5 and have been seeing some battery drain recently when the laptop is completely off. The battery holds its charge much better when it is removed from the laptop.

Has anyone else had this problem with this laptop or with laptops in general? Any suggestions/fixes?

Other than that, this laptop is awesome and delivers excellent quality and performance at a sweet price point.

 

No problem whatsoever. On another note how do you place a second HD drive in it? Thinking of placing a SSD

 

Can someone confirm this:

I just bought my ASUS U46SV, and already returned it twice. The reason? EMI shield leakage.....

Each time I plugged an earphone to the earphone jack, and also plugging in something into one of the USB ports above the earphone jack, I can hear a static hiss in my earphone..... Especially when accesing the data inside the flashdisk / external hdd. This is VERY annoying. I tried plugging in a cooling pad, and it produces the same sound in my earphone. But, if I plugged something on the other USB port (the one directly above the HDMI port), I can hear no sound.

My guess is there's an EMI shield leakage on the USB ports above the earphone jack. And I've already confirmed it with 3 other units. Can someone test their unit? Thanks.

Oh, and by the way, the screen's color is rather off..... It gives a yellowish tint when previewing white color. Anyone got a workaround for this? Color Management or ASUS Splendid settings perhaps? Thanks.

 

Yes its there. I can confirm the hissing sound though not that apparent. Its there when there is data transfer on USB ports on the left side, closer to the earphone jack.

Nope, no colour discolouration whatsoever. The built in colour changer and the onboard colour calibration tool works fine. Also, if you press "Fn + C" you could cycle through the colour preset settings. I just set it to default. I also use F.lux software-works well at night or in different lighting settings.
F.lux: software to make your life better

 

You have to ditch the odd, and buy a odd to hdd tray. Have a look at this,
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-ssd-hdd-storage-using-optical-bay-caddy.html

 

Thank you, that means I'm not crazy..... No workaround for this I guess? The static's making me mad when transferring files.....

What I complained the most about the screen is that the white color seems yellow in my case..... I guess you've got a better screen manufacturer than mine.....

 

Oh well, I've contacted ASUS by email, and they told me to reset the BIOS. Done that, still no change..... It's still giving me those crazy static sound.....

 

Anyone happen to have low battery issues with the u46? I currenly own the u46e best buy model, and should be getting around 5 hours battery life, but am struggling to get 3 hours max.

Current stats according to BatteryBar are a -12,000 mW discharge rate on average, as well as 2.1% battery wear.

If anyone can compare their stats to me that would be great!

 

Hi bro...planning to get this laptop.Could you mention what ssd you've used and the procedure you followed. Link to the procedure you followed perhaps?

 

I was thinking of getting either a U46 or a Acer Timelinex. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

 

Get the U46, period. The current Acer Timeline X suffers from severe thermal throttling.

 

hi. i acciedentally deleted my partition for the recovery cd. does anyone know where i can get this now?

 

To everyone who aren't satisfied with their colors, forget the included bloatware. Use nvidia control panel to boost colors and everything else, and you're fine.

Silly to complain about default settings not being "accurate" or "bright". They are never tuned by default. People need to learn to tune their systems.

 

I can verify the EMI shielding issues, USB powered HDD's cause EXTREME audio interference (you can actually hear the HDD -inside headphones with, ridiculously lazy Q&A ruined an amazing laptop with terrible USB/Analog audio EMI bleed).

DO NOT BUY THIS LAPTOP, It has serious audio issues and for this price this should NEVER happen.

Do not buy intill Asus makes a statement about the problem being corrected.

Ive had two units,
One had broken speaker, only one worked and it had EMI bleed.
My second works, was missing a HDD bay screw and has EMI bleed.

Returning it today.

 

Hey, I was thinking of purchasing the U46SV-DH51 off amazon and was wondering if you guys have had any issues in terms of gaming or overheating. I'm sort of between this and a Lenovo Y570 (which are rather different I know). But I'm trying to get a sense of whether there's anything unforgivably wrong with this laptop. The terrible speakers I don't care much about (all laptops imo have terrible speakers), and I'll be using headphones most of the time anyway. The interference sounds a little troublesome, but I've only seen 1 person who mentioned it. Any other issues you guys run into or are you really happy with your purchase?

On a side note, is there an owner's thread for this model? I couldn't find one.

 

Hello

I´m really glad for mine, the EMI-bleed is present though.
And no, there isn´t any owner´s thread for this model, yet.
Cheers

 

I've read this from many users who actually look for this problem. 90% of people who bought this likely never will even realize the issue, and just accept it as a normal product (EMI BLEED). When i buy a product, I look for these problem so i can report them, this laptop has issues that most 199 acers never had. Keep that in mind when you drop close to 1k on it.

EMI bleed is on every unit i've come across, i've seen the same for users in Germany, EU area. This laptop has an accepted flaw, that the audio out port (headphone out) picks up all EMI noise from the unit and USB (left side usb ports). And it will pick up EXTREME emi bleed when you have USB hdd's in use with headphones. If you have crappy headphones / ear buds they might not even pick up the high pitched Hz signals, so keep that in mind. You can easily hear it on Hi-Fi headphones that will reproduce every sound that it coming from the audio port.

Buy the unit, run a game from an external HDD then mute the sound and listen for the background noise. Its VERY bad that it made me return my unit.
If you dont care about audio, or having terrible sound quality from this EMI issue, then this is a VERY good laptop.

If you care about sound, avoid this unit or you will regret it eventually.
Seriously, avoid it. You'll get trapped with Asus RMA (Asus RMA for laptops is pretty bad nowdays) and the problem will never be solved.

 

Microsoft provides W7 installation files online. You just need to download the version meant for your laptop. Use the cd key attached below your laptop. Thats what I did with mine when I could not use asus backup to make a dvd.

Correct. You will only hear it if you are transferring data with the USB port nearest to the earphones. I tried it on the port on the right side, no sound. So all fine there. You should get a Toshiba with Harmon Kardon speakers.

Thanks for the tip.

I just noticed that the HDD that comes with my laptop: 500GB ST9500325AS is the Seagate momentus XT. No wonder the W7 logo comes out fast. But everything else after that is painfully slow like a normal 5400RPM HDD. Will change it to a SSD when I have the cash.

 

yea oing that doesnt actually give you the same thing though. you dont get the asus software preinstalled then. and when you install them you alwasy missing some. that gives it an "asus" feel.

nice try tho. i was aware of that option to reinstall if i needed thanks.

 

You can download the other software files from Asus itself, so nothing lost there.

 

no point really. got an original driver disc supplied in box to do the same thing. so i no i can clean install and jut use it but htats just one disc as opposed to if i had made recovery discs before deleting the partition would of took 3-4 disc to make. so there must be a difference when using the recovery discs otherwise thre wouldnt be so many more discs then just the one driver disc supplied. even when you include a windows disc that makes just 2 discs. so i hope you see what im getting at. from using a sony laptop and thinkpad i notice the difference when you reinstall it and just add drivers compared to using the 4 or 5 discs used to make a back up.
you are missing some of the factory installed software that you cant always get from the website.
if you havent experienced this yet. you might do in the future and you will know what i mean. but i guess it doesnt matter if you dont think you're missing anything from it.